‘Coal Cares’ hoax website backed by science

By Brandon Keim
10 May 2011 An activist prankster group called Coal is Killing Kids has struck with a hoax website lampooning the coal industry’s resistance to federal pollution reforms. And science is on their side. The target of their “Coal Cares” site, supposedly offering free Justin Bieber and Dora the Explorer inhalers to children living near coal-fired power plants, is Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal company. Peabody and other energy companies have opposed government-mandated cleanup fixes. “Some environmentalists have suggested that coal companies should install an untested technology called ’scrubbers’ atop coal plants to make them burn more cleanly, reducing coal particulate exposure as one cause of childhood asthma,” reads the site. “For our part, Peabody has decided that reducing Asthma-Related Bullying (ARB) is the single most effective way to combat public misperceptions of our industry.” Peabody’s response to the hoax was immediate. “A growing collection of studies demonstrate the correlation between electricity fueled by low-cost coal and improvement in health, longevity and quality of life,” said a company press release. “The United Nations has linked life expectancy, educational attainment and income with per-capita electricity use, and the World Resources Institute found that for every tenfold increase in per-capita energy use, individuals live 10 years longer.” But when it comes to coal, those claims don’t withstand close scrutiny, said environmental health expert Julia Gohlke of the University of Alabama. “That relationship completely breaks down when we’re looking at the infant mortality levels and life expectancy levels that we enjoy in the United States,” she said. “In fact, what you see is a negative impact on health when you look at coal versus other fuels.” Gohlke was the lead author of an Environmental Health Perspectives analysis published in February that tested coal industry claims that the prosperity-related health benefits of burning coal offset damage from pollution. …

‘Coal Cares’ Hoax Website Backed by Science